how to turn any website into an app on iOS
This is a short tutorial on how to make a website look & act like an app on iOS with the Shorcuts app. You can achieve something similar by clicking the "Add to Home Screen" button in the Safari share menu. If that suits your needs you can learn how to do that here, just a reminder that using that method essentially just creates a bookmark to the website to open in Safari.
first step - finding an app icon
Find an image online that you'd like to use as your app icon. You can do this by going into your browser of choice, looking up a suitable app icon and selecting the "Add to Photos" option. If you use dark mode tinting on iOS 18+ then I reccomend downloading an image with a solid black background and a white icon, iOS handles the gradient itself.
second step - installing the shorcut
Click here for a link to setup the shortcut.
third step - running the shortcut
Open the Shorcuts app & run the shorcut called "Make App from URL"
fourth step - setting up the link
1. Enter the name that you would like your app to be called in the text field & click "done".
2. Enter the URL of your chosen site (e.g. https://www.dylanjn.com) & click "done".
3. Select the image you would like to use for your app icon.
4. Click "Allow" then click "Close".
5. Open the Settings app, then click "Profile Downloaded" at the top of the list.
6. Click "Install", enter your passcode, click "Next", then "Install" again.
7. Now your app should now be on your home screen.
it's broken/i need help
If you have any questions or are having difficulty setting this up, email me. I'm always happy to help.
so why did you build this?
I have a lot of webapps that I have to frequent regularly. I used to have Safari shorcuts on my homepage but they were really clunky and I never liked how much of the screen the browser interface took up, especially since I wasn't even using it as a browser but just as a portal to access those webapps. I thought I'd publish my method online for other people to follow or adapt to their personal circumstances.